DMRC sets up 'exact change counters' to address coin shortage

New Delhi: Faced with the issue of shortage of coins, Delhi Metro on February 22 set up an "exact change counters" across 20 busiest stations on its network to curtail queuing or waiting time for passengers.

At these counters, only those passengers who tender exact change can buy tokens. "This will avoid any queuing or waiting time for passengers as they won't have to wait for return change after buying the tokens," a DMRC official said.

Metro says, a shortfall of around "3 lakh coins" per day has led to a situation where passengers are often having to forgo the change amount, leading to many of them lashing out at the staff. "DMRC on an average faces a demand of approximately Rs 7 lakh coins per day (of Rs 1, 2 and 5 denominations).

However, only about 4 to 4.5 lakh (Rs) coins can be made available to the 146 stations on daily basis which creates a gap between demand and supply," the official said. The stations where these counters have been made operational are - New Delhi, Chandni Chowk, Rajiv Chowk, Anand Vihar, Shahdara, HUDA City Centre, Jahangirpuri, Uttam Nagar East, Saket, Dilshad Garden, Kashmere Gate, Badarpur, AIIMS, Vaishali, Karol Bagh, Seelampur, M G Road, Noida City Centre, R K Ashram and Dwarka Mor.

DMRC has also installed 'Point of Sale' (POS) machines at its 73 stations including all stations of the Airport Express Line to facilitate cashless transaction for passengers who wish to recharge their smart cards by using credit or debit cards. "These machines are available at 'Customer Care Centre' of those stations and passengers can get their smart cards recharged by using their credit/debit cards thus eliminating the need for carrying cash to the counter all the time," DMRC said in a statement. Presently, around 70 per cent commuters use smart cards.